Getting there: Melbourne

Thursday 28 April
     After only being home for 2 days Kirsten and I were off to Melbourne for the weekend. We started our journey at the domestic terminal in Sydney airport. We go there really early just to be safe, and it was good we did because their lines aren't labeled so we stood in the wrong one for 20 minutes the the right one for 15 minutes, and then wouldn't you know it our flight got delayed twice, about 25 minutes each time. Nothing too unbearable, but still a minor pain. When it was time to board, I handed them my "boarding pass," which was really a plain piece of paper I printed at school, and was instructed to go down the stairs and to the left. I followed the instructions and soon enough I was on the tarmac. I believe my exact words to the stranger in front of me were, "Well this is new." I then followed her to the tail of the plane, where we boarded through the back door, which until now I thought was for emergency use only. I was wrong. Kirsten had a seat up front and so we didn't board together. After this we were soon in the air. The plane seemed to be a little old and outdated, and boy the seats were uncomfortable, but other than that the trip was fine, and after only a 1 hour flight we were landing in Melbourne.
     I disembarked through the back door and out onto the tarmac once again. I then walked along a "hallway" and by this I mean a sidewalk with a roof and no walls (and mind you it was pretty cold) to "baggage claim," and by this I mean a little caged in area (much like a mini garage) where by the looks of it one would imagine horrible things could happen. I was not impressed. Nor was I impressed by the amount of time it took for our bags to arrive from the plane... I mean its not like they had to take them inside...
     After finally getting our bag we headed out to the bus stop, but it wasn't running from that stop, so we had to walk to the "other" terminal, or the REAL terminal, which has an actual building, to catch the bus to finally make it to.... nope not our hostel.... the bus station, because after 10 pm the bus doesn't do hotel drop offs. So we took my handy dandy map and headed for the hostel on foot. After walking many blocks (in a hurry because if we weren't there within an hour of our estimated arrival they could give up our room) we finally made it. It was after midnight and we were exhausted, so we went straight to bed.
    This adventure alone was enough to make me NEVER want to take a budget airline again, but I still had the trip home...